"PLUTO PLANET POWER, MAKE UP!!"
The transformation pen did its magic as it turned Ranma into Sailor Pluto. The small time key floated out of Ranma's pocket as it grew in length and once again became the long staff.
"All right," the strange voice seemed to cheer. "Now dust this Youma!"
Youma? Ranma thought. Is that what they're called? She still thought of this abominable beast as horrifying, but turned into a sailor suited Senshi of justice did more than just dress her in a pretty fuku and give her super powers.
It steeled her will to fight and made her brave enough not to run away.
"Okay, ugly," she sneered. "BRING IT ON!"
The Youma screeched and lashed out with... something, but Ranma jumped over it. "Too slow," she cried. Than she raised her staff and shouted whatever came to her mind:
"DEAD SCREAM!" The destructive magic of Pluto shot out of her staff and hit the bull's eye.
The Youma wailed as the magic attack disintegrated its body. Then, everything was quiet.
Ranma wiped her brow and willed the staff back to pencil size.
"I don't believe it," the unknown voice screeched. "Here I do my best to keep you out of trouble, and there you come, walking right in the middle of where you're in danger. That's just great!"
Ranma looked around, but still couldn't see any person that could have spoken to her. She was the only one in this room.
Well, the bat that flew in front of her face earlier was still fluttering above her head, but that still didn't tell her where the person was that was talking to her.
"Hey! I'm talking to you! Are you that rude or don't you want to answer?"
Ranma stared at the little flying animal. It seemed unlikely, but the bat's little mouth MOVED when she heard the voice.
"What's wrong?" the bat asked. "Cat got your tongue?"
"You... you speak?"
"Of course I do! And much better than you!"
"But that's... that's..."
"Impossible?" The bat seemed to snicker. "Dearie, we're in a house that has corridors that never end and you just dusted a demon with magic. I think in here pretty much everything is possible."
Ranma didn't know what to say to that. But then she realized something. "Hey! I know you! I've seen you before, at the airport! You attacked that man with the knife, the one that..."
"That wanted to make sushi out of you. You got it!" The bat flew closer. "By the way... what's an 'airport?"
"Um... it's some kind of... nest! For planes!"
"What's a plane?"
"Some kind of machine that can fly."
"Really? Like me?"
"Um, sort of!" Ranma couldn't believe it. Here she was, explaining to a bat what an airport was.
"Hey, you gotta stand there the whole day?" the bat asked.
Ranma sighed. "You know, you're pretty impatient for a bat."
"You wanna insult me?" the bat screeched. "I am no bat! I'm a BATRAT!"
Ranma blinked. "A... bat... rat..."
"Precisely," the little animal nodded. "And not just any batrat, I'm the biggest, fastest, most terrible batrat that ever lived. My name is Swoop, and you better remember it."
"Swoop?"
"Yeah, because I swoop down, out of the darkness, upon my unsuspecting enemies. I can show you! See?" She began to fly across the room and made one nose dive after another. "Here! Whoosh! and Whoosh!"
"Heyhey! I think I got it!"
"And WHOOSH! and WHOOSH! and..." Right in the middle of one spectacular dive, Swoop miscalculated her flight path and slammed into the wall. Dizzily she slid down onto the floor.
Ranma kneeled down next to her. "Hey! You all right?"
The little batrat shook her head. "Whoa! I guess I kinda goofed... but that's okay! I'm fine!"
She stood up using her little wings as levers and looked at Ranma's face. "Well, you wanna meet the others?"
"Others?" Ranma remembered the little girl she met shortly before meeting the Youmas. "Who are they? Where did they come from?"
Swoop didn't response but flew up. "Hey! You wanna open this dor for me or not?" Ranma sighed and opened the door. Swoop quickly flew outside. Ranma followed her and realized that all of the other Youma were gone.
"Come, this way!" the batrat called her. She guided Ranma to one of the spiral stairways that lead to the upper floors.
After going up several floors, Swoop guided Ranma through a corridor that looked exactly like the one where she first saw the Youma. "Hey, where are we anyway?" she asked the batrat.
"Well, this is the thirteenth floor! You're not superstitious, are you?"
Ranma shrugged. The thirteenth floor - of course - it couldn't have been another number, for this was Amnar's screwed up life. But that really didn't answer her question.
In front of a door that really didn't look different then all the others, Swoop stopped in mid-air. "Here, they're in there! See you later!" And after saying that, she just turned around and flew away.
"Hey! You just leaving me here?" Ranma yelled after her.
"Yes!" she shouted back, and then she was gone.
Now with Swoop gone, Ranma could hear the voices of several people in the room next to him. Most of them sounded like the voices of children, or girls. They sounded pretty upset.
Ranma sighed and opened the door.
The room looked like all the others, but there were several girls in there, six girls of different ages. Two of them were in the middle of a discussion when Ranma entered: A raven-haired girl that might be his age, and the little girl with the violet-black hair he met before. There were also a tall brunette with a ponytail, a blonde with a bow in her hair, a girl with short blue hair and an older girl with wavy turquoise hair that looked very elegant.
The two girls stopped in the middle of their bickering and stared at Ranma as if she was a ghost. The other girls seemed surprised as well.
Ranma raised her hand. "Hel... lo!"
The tall, brunette girl quickly stepped out into the corridor, but the rest of them quickly surrounded Ranma and bombarded her with questions:
"Who are you?" "Where do you come from?" "How did you get here?" and again and again "Who are you?"
Then the raven-haired girl that had argued with the little girl raised her arms and shouted: "Hey hey, calm down, everybody!"
After all of them calmed down a little, she asked again: "Who are you?"
"My name is... Ranma!"
"Ranma, really? But where do you come from? It's way too soon!"
What was that supposed to mean, Ranma wondered. "Too soon for what?"
Then the tall girl with the pony-tail stepped back into the room and said: "Everything's fine, no Youmas in sight!"
The black-haired girl, who seemed to be some sort of leader, nodded. Then she said to Ranma: "You must be the girl Hotaru told us about."
"Now you believe me, do you?" the little girl said with a grieved voice. "I told ya I saw someone."
"But who are you girls?" Ranma managed to ask. "And what are you doing here?"
"I am Rei," the girl in front of him said. She pointed to the tall brunette. "That's Makoto over there, and these are..." she pointed at the rest of the girls. "...Minako, Ami and Michiru, and you know Hotaru. And what were you doing down there, where she met you?"
"I don't know... I really didn't notice any difference between this floor and the others."
"The Youma live down there," Rei explained. "It's dangerous to go to the lower floors. That's why we stay up here."
"And why are you here? What are you doing here?"
"We're trying to survive, what else," Makoto replied. "You really don't know anything, do you?"
Ranma shook her head. "No, not really! I mean, what is this place?"
"It is The House," Ami shyly said.
"I know it's the house of my grandfather," Ranma said, but..."
"I don't know who your grandfather is," Rei interrupted. "But this certainly isn't his house. But what I want to know: How did you get here?"
"Well, when I was down on the other floor, I met someone who told me to talk to you." She grinned. "You probably won't believe me, but it was a bat! A TALKING bat!"
Rei nodded. "Swoop! We know her! But what I mean is: How did you get into The House?"
"I... I walked into a closet."
"A closet?" Minako asked. "But there are no closets here!"
"Well, where I come from, there are closets," Ranma said.
Rei shook her head. "You know what? I think you really don't know anything about this place. But it's okay, we can tell you. And we've got time!"
"Lots of time," Makoto nodded.
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Fri, 07 Jul 2006 19:42)
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